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(or, The Diary of a Confessed Caffeine Abuser)
Getting Real About Privacy
Seems you can't trust anyone these days...
By David "Spam Me and Die" Fiedler
Really now.
First, it was the discovery that information about people's music listening habits was being sent surreptitiously to RealNetworks from their RealJukebox application. To their credit, RealNetworks issued a software patch to stop that, and said they would stop collecting such data.
Now, a class-action lawsuit has been filed against RealNetworks, alleging invasion of privacy, trespass, and unfair competition. The plaintiff in the lawsuit (himself a lawyer) was also quoted as claiming that RealNetworks committed a "burglary" via computer.
Almost unnoticed in all this was the news that RealNetworks split into business and consumer portals yesterday, as well as launching an entirely new release of its RealPlayer (I mention this just so you know I'm paying attention).
While one of the reasons behind the lawsuit may indeed be privacy concerns, I smell money as the true bait. The attorney-for-the-attorney filing the suit will be reportedly asking for $500 in damages from RealNetworks for each user in California. As a registered user of RealJukebox living in California, I doubt that I'd get more than $7.50 even if the plaintiff wins the case: class-action suits are generally filed for the sole purpose of enriching lawyers, some of whom specialize in filing such cases (check out the people behind the tobacco and gun industry lawsuits if you're interested). Furthermore, the InternetNews.com article cited above reports that the plaintiff fully expected RealNetworks' stock to go down because of the privacy news, so he bought a short position in the stock! Anyone out there believe that he was guessing that the stock would go up after he filed his lawsuit?
But RealNetworks isn't totally blameless in all this. In spite of reassurances, they apparently were indeed recording users' personal information without telling them. This isn't just bad karma, but it might well be illegal too.
Anyone else remember that RealNetworks' previous name was Progressive Networks? That name, I understand, was meant to signify the founder's personal political preference as a "progressive" person. In current American usage, this refers to someone of what might be called a "liberal" or "left-wing" persuasion (as if someone of any other political stripe can't be "progressive" in thought too!). Normally, that would be the last kind of corporate entity you'd expect to be fooling people on this level. But maybe money's more important than beliefs when it comes down to brass tacks. Heck, you might as well expect, oh, dioxin to be found in Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream!
-- D. Fiedler
David Fiedler is Editor-in-Chief of WebDeveloper.com®, and his opinions are definitely his own.
Last modified: Thu Jun 15 06:22:19 EDT 2000
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